My Tenant Won't Leave, or Has Breached the Lease, and I Need My Property Back

Grounds during the lease term. Article 25(1) lets a Dubai landlord seek eviction before expiry “only in the following cases”: (a) rent unpaid within 30 days of service of a payment notice; (b) subletting without written approval; (c) illegal use, or use contrary to public order or morals; (d) business premises left empty without valid reason for 30 consecutive or 90 non-consecutive days a year, unless the lease says otherwise; (e) irreversible changes endangering safety, or deliberate or grossly negligent damage; (f) use for another purpose or against planning rules; (g) likely collapse, proved by a Dubai Municipality technical report; (h) any other legal or contractual obligation not met within 30 days of a notice; and (i) government-mandated demolition and reconstruction.

Grounds at the end of the lease. Article 25(2) allows eviction on expiry “only if” the owner will demolish and rebuild or add structures (with the required permits), the property needs restoration or comprehensive maintenance impossible with the tenant inside (verified by a Dubai Municipality technical report), the owner wants it for their own or a first-degree relative's use (proving they own no suitable alternative property), or the owner wants to sell.

Expiry alone is on neither list, and nor is wanting a higher rent. The ground dictates the notice, so test your facts against it with a lawyer before anything goes out.

What the notice should contain. Identify the property, the lease and the tenant; state the Article 25 ground and the facts behind it; and say what the tenant must do — pay the stated arrears or remedy the stated breach within 30 days for grounds (a) and (h), or vacate by an eviction date at least 12 months away for the end-of-term grounds, whose reasons the law requires you to give.

How it must be delivered. Article 25 requires service “through a Notary Public or by registered mail” — stricter than the law's general definition of notice, which also allows hand delivery and electronic means. The RDC's eviction checklist asks for the notarised notice with the notification officer's report, or registered-post proof. Acknowledged WhatsApp messages and emails can be evidence at the RDC, but not a valid eviction notice, and nothing the RDC publishes says a courier delivery suffices.

What it costs and how long it takes. LEXNOVA does not publish notary, Trustee-centre or lawyer charges; the cost depends on the channel, Arabic translation and who drafts the notice. Timing matters more: the 30-day periods run from service, and the 12-month period is counted back from the eviction date. Whether the 12-month notice must also arrive 12 months before the lease's own expiry is not stated in the text, so plan the dates with a lawyer.

If the 30 days pass, or the eviction date arrives and the tenant is still there, file at the Rental Disputes Center. The RDC treats eviction as a request added within a new lawsuit, registered online or at a Real Estate Services Trustee centre. Its checklist asks for the latest Ejari lease, Emirates ID or commercial licence, IBAN evidence, the notarised notice with proof of service and any power of attorney, all in Arabic or legally translated.

At the time of writing (September 2026), eviction is a non-monetary claim with a registration fee of 3.5% of the annual rent (minimum AED 500, maximum AED 20,000) plus small service charges — check the current schedule. Conciliation comes first, with a statutory target of 15 days from the parties' appearance and half the fee refunded if the case settles there; unsettled cases go to the First Instance Division, whose target is 30 days from referral, extendable once. These are targets, not promises.

A landlord can ask the RDC for eviction and for unpaid rent; a lawyer will advise how to structure the claim. Whether compensation for the period a tenant holds over can be added has not been confirmed for this page. Meanwhile, Article 31 keeps the tenant liable for rent throughout the claim, until an award is issued and executed.

RDC judgments in claims under AED 100,000 are normally final, but Decree No. 26 of 2013 lets eviction judgments be appealed whatever the value, within 15 days from the day after the judgment hearing (or from service if the tenant never appeared or filed a defence).

Repossession runs through the RDC's Judgment Enforcement Directorate, which enforces final judgments and can call on the Dubai Courts' Execution Department for help. An execution file can be opened 15 days after the day following a judgment given in the parties' presence, or 15 days after the defendant was notified. At the time of writing (September 2026), eviction in execution costs 1% of the annual rent, capped at AED 5,000, plus small charges — check the current schedule.

The order does not let you remove the tenant or their belongings yourself: the handover and anything left behind are dealt with through the execution process. Money awards are executed by the same directorate, and the RDC states that there is no fee for executing financial claims (at the time of writing, September 2026).

Damage beyond the deposit. Only serious damage is an eviction ground under Article 25(1)(e): irreversible changes endangering safety, or damage caused deliberately or by gross negligence. Ordinary damage is a money question. Article 20 lets you hold a deposit to secure maintenance of the property, refundable “or remainder thereof” on expiry, and Article 21 requires the tenant to return the property as received, save for ordinary wear and tear, sending disputes over condition to the RDC. Costs above the deposit are a monetary claim — at the time of writing (September 2026) 3.5% of the amount claimed, minimum AED 500, maximum AED 15,000; check the current schedule.

Unauthorised sublet, short-let or occupants. Unless the lease says otherwise, subletting needs the landlord's written consent (Article 24), and unauthorised subletting is an eviction ground that reaches the subtenant too (Article 25(1)(b)). Holiday-home letting is separately licensed, and those rules are outside this page. Shared housing in Dubai is now separately regulated by Law No. 4 of 2026, with the Rental Disputes Center as the dispute forum.

The tenant has disappeared. Dubai law has no residential abandonment ground; the vacancy ground in Article 25(1)(d) covers business premises only. For a home, use the non-payment ground and the RDC — never entry, clearance or re-letting — and let a lawyer handle serving a tenant who cannot be found.

Article 34 says the landlord “may not disconnect services from the Real Property or disturb the Tenant in his use of the Real Property in any manner”. Changing the locks, cutting power, water or cooling, removing belongings and blocking access all fall within that. The tenant can report it at the police station for the area, claim damages at the RDC, and petition the RDC's Urgent Matters Judge where services have been cut.

Self-help hands the tenant a claim against you in the same forum you need for your own case, and moves the spotlight from their conduct to yours. Whether a particular act also carries criminal exposure is a question for a lawyer; this page names no offence.

Where the RDC rules for the landlord on the own-use ground in Article 25(2)(c), Article 26 bars renting the property to a third party for at least two years (residential) or three years (non-residential) from the date of retaking possession; otherwise the former tenant may ask the RDC for fair compensation, for which the law sets no formula. Plan on the family really moving in. Whether a tenant who left without an RDC ruling can rely on Article 26 is not answered by the text.

Article 26 imposes no equivalent re-letting bar after a sale-based eviction. A sale is different anyway: under Article 28 a transfer of ownership does not affect a tenant's right to stay under a fixed-term lease, and the RDC says a new owner who wants the property vacated must send their own legal notice. After a demolition or renovation eviction, Article 29 gives the former tenant a right of first refusal to return, exercised within 30 days of being notified.

Renewal stand-offs. A party wanting new terms must notify the other at least 90 days before expiry unless the lease says otherwise (Article 14); if you cannot agree, the RDC can determine a fair rent (Article 13); and a tenant who stays on after expiry without your objection is renewed on the same terms (Article 6). None of that is an eviction ground.